Shortly after I started my window cleaning company, I read a book titled ‘The Unfair Advantage, How You Already Have What It Takes to Succeed’ by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba. In this book, the authors explain that each one of us already has unfair advantages that are unique to us that give us an edge over the competition to be successful. Obviously, these aren’t illegal or unethical advantages; it simply means that you already have them and often don’t realize that they are there. The book teaches the reader to identify and use them to their advantage. Identifying these unfair advantages that you have over the competition would be very useful whether you’re a window cleaner, that is just cleaning windows as a ‘side hustle’ on a part-time basis, if you’re just starting up your window cleaning company, or if you’ve been in business for years now.

Most of the time, these advantages are already present and are automatically there. An example of this would be being at a previous job in a large company for many years and have met hundreds of people over the years and already having that client base there to network with and potentially have several customers to start with, as opposed to someone just moving into town and trying to start up a window cleaning company. Luck is involved with having these advantages, it’s just your job in identifying them and using them to become successful.

I was lucky enough to have several advantages myself when I started my company. We had been in town for about 20 years and had already met so many people to have a client base to work with, in addition to our smaller city not having a window cleaning company or even a window cleaner to speak of that was established. I knew there was a huge market there for me and used it to my advantage. Another advantage I had was my work schedule with my full-time job as I was cleaning windows part-time and building my company. I worked 12 hour shifts at this company and had a 3/4/3/4 schedule. So, one week I would work 3 days, the following week I would work 4 days a week and so on, and this allowed me to have several days off a month to build the business, network, and do the actual window cleaning. If I had an 8 to 5, 5 days a week work schedule at that time, it would have been extremely tough, (if not impossible), for me to have the same success I did have in the first couple years. I was able to run the window cleaning business full-time and quit my full-time job in the beginning of my third year of business because I believe I used these advantages to benefit me. Maybe you’ve always been good at interacting and talking with people and consider yourself a people person and find it easier to talk with customers and make them feel at ease when you meet them and are giving them an estimate? Maybe you’ve always been good at sales and that helps you with giving your estimates? Perhaps your advantage is you’ve always been a very hard worker and have always worked harder than the next guy and it’s your strong work ethic over the competition that gives you the advantage? We all have these advantages; you just have to identify them to become as successful as you can.

Hard work obviously comes into play as well when trying to start up or run a window cleaning company, but everyone knows that there are thousands of people in any field that work extremely hard at starting up their company or running their company, and still fail, regardless of the hard work they are putting in. That’s why it is so important to identify what unfair advantages you do have and use them as best as you can to become successful.

The authors explain that while searching for these advantages that you already have, you may notice some weaknesses, but it’s never too late to turn these weaknesses into advantages for yourself. If you find yourself struggling with getting new customers and marketing your company as an example, research all you can and read all you can to get better in that area and turn it to an advantage, because

maybe the next guy isn’t doing that or doesn’t want to learn that side of the business and now you have the advantage over them, or ask someone who is very good in this field for some help.

I wish you the best of luck and much success in the future.